15 Sent To Hospitals After Crash

YORK — Fifteen people were sent to area hospitals late Saturday after their church van flipped over a guard rail on Interstate 64 near the Lightfoot exit.

Most of the van's 14 passengers were injured when they were thrown from the van belonging to Our Lady of Vietnam Catholic Church in Hampton, said Capt. Thomas Clements of the York County Department of Fire and Life Safety. A 15th person riding in another car, apparently traveling with the van, was injured trying to help.

As of 11 p.m. Saturday, seven of the most-seriously injured passengers were still being treated at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News. Clements said two of the riders - an adult man and a teen-aged girl - received life-threatening head injuries. Another five were also seriously injured, but not as critically.

The other eight people were not as seriously injured and were sent to Williamsburg Community Hospital. Six ambulances were at the scene of the accident, taking all the patients to hospitals just before 11 p.m..

The fire department did not release any of the passengers' names Saturday because no one had notified family members of the accident.

Workers believe all the riders were Vietnamese, although they could not be sure if they were members of the church. A language barrier hampered some of their efforts to communicate with patients.

State police were not available late Saturday to say how the accident took place. The van was found rolled over and hanging over the guard rail on the right side of the eastbound lane of I-64 between mile markers 233 and 234, Clements said.

* Nancy Feigenbaum can be reached at 247-4765 or by e-mail at nfeigenbaum@dailypress.com